Kyle Busch attempts to walk back Dale Earnhardt Jr. comments after first crew chief victory at Pocono

In the days since his comments about Dale Earnhardt Jr. serving as a crew chief went public and caught fire, Kyle Busch has slowly been walking things back. He did more damage control on Tuesday, speaking with Frontstretch.

Busch clarified his comments — he had called Earnhardt ‘a warm body sitting on top of the box’ — in a brief interview. He wished Earnhardt well.

“Well I meant that as if I were doing it, if I were going to go do that and say KBM Truck Series was in existence and one of our crew chiefs got suspended,” Kyle Busch said. “I’d raise my hand and say, ‘Yeah, I’ll go do it,’ but I know darned well those guys are going to be in my ear telling me everything that we need to do.

“He was obviously way more involved than I thought or expected that he would be, so I’m happy for him. Look, I mean that’s cool. That’s an accolade. That’s an asterisk on his resume. He doesn’t need any more of those, but it was fun to see his excitement and the things that he was involved with with the team.”